Performance degradation when generating party parrots at scale

[mayberryzane]

Description

We've observed significant performance degradation when the service attempts to generate more than 50 party parrots simultaneously. Response times increase from ~200ms to over 5 seconds under high load.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Send concurrent requests to /api/generate-parrot endpoint
2. Increase concurrent requests beyond 50
3. Observe response time degradation

Expected Behavior

The service should handle concurrent requests efficiently with consistent response times, regardless of load (within reasonable limits).

Actual Behavior

• Response times increase exponentially with load
• Memory usage spikes significantly
• Some requests timeout after 10 seconds

Environment

• Service version: 1.2.3
• Node.js version: 18.x
• Deployment: Kubernetes cluster
• Load: 50-100 concurrent requests

Potential Impact

This issue affects user experience during peak usage times, particularly during celebrations or viral moments when party parrot demand is highest.

Suggested Investigation Areas

1. Check for memory leaks in the GIF generation process
2. Review connection pooling for image processing
3. Investigate potential bottlenecks in the rendering pipeline
4. Consider implementing request queuing or rate limiting